VII
Shiri sat beside Ashton in the hospital waiting room, slouched down on the hard plastic bench. Ashton had reclined in his seat, throwing one long leg over the bench seat beside him. They had accompanied Courtney, and she had asked if they could wait for her.
Shiri's Poké Mart shift was an evening one that day, so she gladly agreed. She and Courtney had exchanged a few sentences of conversation while they waited until a doctor was available to see Courtney. Courtney was in a lot of pain, but she seemed to be calmed by Shiri chatting to her about Viridian City.
Shiri glanced over to Ashton. He was typing a text message on his phone. His dark eyes met hers, and he grinned. "I scored Simon's number," he boasted.
Shiri's eyes widened. "Not even you are that smooth."
Ashton chuckled. "Well, it sure wasn't for pleasure. He wanted me to let him know how Courtney was." Ashton pulled a small, white card from the pocket of his skinny jeans, crumpled from being crushed against the material. He handed it over to Shiri.
It was simple, just a name, a phone number, and an email address printed in black ink and a sans serif font. No nonsense, no flourish.
Simon Harron.
"Recognize the name?" Ashton asked, still tapping at his phone screen.
"No. Should I?"
"He comes from a pretty famous family in Galar." He tapped at his phone once more, slid his thumb down the screen, then turned the phone to reveal the screen to Shiri. On the screen was a picture of a young man in his early twenties. He had the same thick-set build as Simon, the same blond hair which was slicked back from his handsome face. He posed with his back to the camera to reveal a large logo on his jacket, his face revealed in profile over his shoulder. At his side was a shuckle, its head bent low like it was ready for battle. A caption beneath read, "Gordie Harron signs new sponsorship deal with Galar Minerals."
"He's the gym leader of Circhester," Ashton explained as Shiri took the image in. "His mother, Melony, was the gym leader before him. You can totally see the family resemblance, yeah?"
"Definitely," Shiri answered noncommittally. She didn't particularly care what family Simon had come from, only what he was currently involved with.
The images of those strange pokémon played in her mind over and over. The second Shiri had clapped eyes on that magmar, she knew deep in her bones something was wrong with it. It was the same with Courtney's raichu. She got that same bad energy from them as that ditto from a few days ago. And who had once again jumped in to save the day, but Simon.
What, exactly, was his purpose in Pewter? It certainly wasn't catching wild pokémon for a giveaway promotion. He was able to capture these pokémon, which were already owned by their new trainers, as soon as they turned disobedient. Dangerous. Shiri may never have been a trainer, but she knew how poké balls worked.
No, Simon had access to some sort of special type of poké ball, so that he could remove the danger from the situation at a moment's notice. What Simon was doing was plain and simple cleanup.
She gazed back at the card in her hand, at the phone number printed out below Simon's name. She pulled her own cell phone out of her purse and began to type a message to that number.
"What is going on?" she typed out. Then she hesitated, tapping her thumb nails against the screen of her phone. She glanced at Ashton, who had turned his attention to his own cell phone. She deleted the message she had typed out, then wrote, "I want you to tell me what is going on."
Her heart lurched as she hit the send button. She watched with dismay as it sent, the symbol in the corner going from a spinning circle to a check mark. If a second check mark appeared, it would mean Simon had opened the message.
She sat completely still, not breathing, watching for that second checkmark. The phone screen went black after a few moments.
Shiri bit her lip and tapped the home button, and the screen lit up again. Still no second check mark.
"Thanks for waiting," Courtney's voice rang out, startling Shiri. She shoved her phone into her purse as she looked up at Courtney with a strained smile. Her wrist was encased in a pink cast.
"Of course, no problem, hun," Shiri said. "Was it broken?"
Courtney nodded with a wince. "Not horribly. They set it pretty easily and I shouldn't need surgery."
"Pretty lucky," Ashton said, sitting upright. "Though I guess it'd have been luckier if it never happened."
Courtney laughed lightly, but there was heaviness and tension in her body. "I suppose Leader Liam will want me to give him some sort of statement, huh?" she asked with a tired sigh.
"Most likely," Ashton said. "I'm sure he'll make it right for you. Maybe give you a new pokémon to make up for it all." Courtney shrugged at that suggestion. Shiri thought it best if she avoided any pokémon being given away by the gym leader.
Ashton offered to take Courtney back to the Pokémon Center, but she thought it best if she spoke to Liam as soon as possible. The three of them filed out of the hospital, and as they did so, Shiri's phone chimed. She nearly dropped it, unlocking the screen and peering down at Simon's response.
"Let's talk later."
Simon was sweating despite sitting in Liam's cool air-conditioned office. Liam himself looked just as out of sorts as Simon felt. He was relaying the events to the boss, who Liam had called as soon as Lawrence had left.
Lawrence had not been pleased with the way things had shaken out. His face was nearly purple with rage as he had demanded that Liam make restitution in one way or another. Liam had offered monetary compensation or even another pokémon, but Lawrence was only further enraged by these suggestions.
"Of course I don't want another of your horrendous pokémon," Lawrence had growled. "That thing nearly killed me! I'll have you removed as gym leader here, I swear it!"
Lawrence's indignance had only served to make Simon's apprehension double. Now, sitting in this conference call, he felt like the walls of the office were closing in on him.
"Do you have this trainer's identification number?" the boss' voice asked tersely over the phone's speaker.
"Yes, ma'am," Liam answered, "the computer registered it when I gave him the pokémon."
"And the female trainer's?"
"That, too."
"Forward them to me," she commanded. Liam immediately began clicking on his computer. "Simon, you recovered the pokémon, correct?"
"Of course," he said, his own tone coming out sharp. He winced at this; the boss wouldn't take well to it.
There was a pause before she spoke again, letting the silence testify to her displeasure. "You will send them to me immediately." Simon opened his mouth to voice his assent, but she continued, "And then I want you to meet me at my office in Celadon tonight."
"Tonight?" Simon repeated.
"Is that inconvenient for you?" she asked. Her words came out like daggers.
"No, ma'am," Simon answered. His stomach tightened. He wasn't quite ready to leave Pewter yet.
"What about the rest of the giveaway?" Liam asked, leaning forward now.
"We're canceling it," the boss responded as if it should have been obvious. "We'll need to figure out what went wrong with this batch. And we'll be fielding questions from the press." She sighed, and Simon could picture her rubbing her temples as she always did when she was heavily stressed. "Liam, you will receive a press release within the next hour or so. Do not deviate from it."
"You got it."
Simon felt his phone vibrate against his leg in the pocket of his shorts. He figured it was Ashton letting him know Courtney's status.
"Go ahead and close the gym for the rest of the weekend as well," the boss added. "It'll look more respectful."
As she spoke, Simon peaked at his phone. He had a number of messages from Ashton over the last hour, saying when they had arrived at the hospital, when Courtney went into the doctor's office, the extent of her injury. There was one extraneous message complimenting Simon on how he had handled the situation in the gym, which made him uncomfortable.
There was another message from a phone number which didn't identify themself, but Simon could tell who it was. There was only one person who would ask him so directly about the situations she had witnessed.
"Simon!" the boss' voice snapped, bringing Simon's attention back to the meeting at hand.
"Sorry," he said, sticking his phone back in his pocket. Liam shot him a glare.
"I'm not repeating myself," she said. "You have your instructions." She hung up, the beep of the phone line the only sound until Liam hung up his side.
"Sounds like Marlena's got it out for you," Liam said.
Simon ignored the comment. "You have a pokémon transporter?" he asked.
Liam nodded. "It'll be downstairs. All yours."
Simon nodded and stood. As he returned to the first floor, he pulled out his phone and typed a response to the message from the unidentified phone number. He knew he should ignore it, avoid her, and get out of Pewter. The boss calling him to Celadon should be a blessing.
But he wanted to see her just one more time.